Bobby Smith’s first job was on his family’s dairy farm in Boaz, Alabama. He felt right at home when University of Georgia Cooperative Extension hired him to work with farmers in Morgan County, one of the state’s most productive dairy regions, 18 years ago.

University of Georgia food scientist Xiangyu Deng has been awarded the Larry Beuchat Young Researcher Award by the International Association for Food Protection (IAFP). The award recognizes excellence in food safety and was presented to Deng at the IAFP meeting held July 8-11 in Salt Lake City.

It may seem like everyone on Earth has an equal chance of being born male or female. It’s about a 50-50 split, after all.

University of Georgia Distinguished Research Professor Casimir Akoh recently accepted the Institute of Food Technologists’ (IFT) research award. The award recognizes an improvement in public health.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) awarded University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) plant breeders almost $1 million in grants this fiscal year to produce improved cotton and peanut varieties.

University of Georgia scientists are assisting in a study to find a cantaloupe variety with less netting on the rind in the hopes that the fruit will be less susceptible to the bacteria or pathogens that settle in the netting on the outside of the fruit.

Bhabesh Dutta, University of Georgia Cooperative Extension vegetable plant pathologist, has been named to the first class of Fruit + Vegetable 40 Under 40 Award winners.

The University of Georgia Research Foundation has named Wayne Parrott, UGA professor of crop and soil sciences, a Distinguished Research Professor. The award recognizes contributions to knowledge and work that promises to foster continued creativity. Parrott specializes in plant genetics and is one of the world’s leading authorities on soybean genomics and technologies that allow for the improvement of crop plants.

University of Georgia horticulturists Rachel Itle and Dario Chavez recently travelled to Australia to collect seeds from wild raspberries and peaches to bring back to the UGA Griffin campus. As scientists in the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, Itle and Chavez research Georgia-grown fruit.

Georgia watermelon growers who have a targeted, informed disease management plan for gummy stem blight disease could save money and lessen the environmental impact of producing this favorite summertime fruit.